Norwood Cemetery
Hearne, Robertson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Though the oldest known grave on this site was made for Mary Stroud Bolton in 1870, the year it was deeded to the City of Hearne, stories persist that patients of the Sisters of Charity Hospital that once overlooked the cemetery were buried on this site. Among the nameless may be Irish and Chinese immigrants who built the railroad in this region. Other significant burials include those of Confederate soldier C. W. Gardner and prominent area families Hearne and Lewis. Norwood Cemetery continues to be the primary burial site for the city. (1997)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Norwood Cemetery holds its oldest known grave from 1870, the year the land was deeded to Hearne, though tradition says patients of a nearby Sisters of Charity hospital were buried here earlier. Among the unnamed may rest the Irish and Chinese immigrants who built the region's railroads, alongside a Confederate soldier and members of prominent local families. It remains the city's primary burial ground.
Why it matters
The cemetery quietly records the immigrant labor that laid Texas's railroads, honoring workers whose names history largely failed to keep.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Mary Stroud Bolton
- · C. W. Gardner
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
New Baden
New Baden, TX
German, Prussian, and Swiss immigrants founded New Baden in 1881, naming it for the German spa town of Baden-Baden. Newcomers first lodged in a shared "Colony House" while building their homes, and the settlement—sited on the International & Great Northern Railroad—soon had stores, churches, a school, and a depot. Farming anchored the local economy, and though the population thinned in the 1940s, New Baden endures as a rural community.
Bremond
Bremond, TX
Once part of an 1841 land grant, this site was sold in 1869 to investors who promptly granted right-of-way to the Houston and Texas Central Railway. The first train arrived in 1870 to a crowd of more than a thousand, and the new town—named for railroad executive Paul Bremond—quickly gained merchants, churches, doctors, a school, and a newspaper. Joseph Bartula and his family were among the many Polish immigrants who began arriving in the 1870s.
Holland Community
Holland, TX
Holland grew out of three settlements that began drawing farmers to this fertile ground in the 1830s, first clustering around a place called Mountain Home. In 1878 Civil War veteran James R. "Rube" Holland built a steam-powered cotton gin, a post office took his name, and when the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad arrived in 1881 the town shifted to a new site. Czech and German immigrants poured in, and by 1920 Holland was a thriving cotton town of over a thousand, with banks, hotels, gins, and an opera house.
Port Sullivan Cemetery
Cameron, TX
In the 1850s, boosters laid out Port Sullivan on the Brazos River, and thanks to steamboat traffic it briefly bloomed into a town of more than a thousand souls, complete with stores, a sawmill, and even a college. In 1867 the local Masonic lodge set aside five acres for a community burying ground, where a Grand Master of Texas Masons was later laid to rest. When the railroads pushed through elsewhere, they left Port Sullivan stranded, and the town withered until only its cemetery remained.